


Masterpiece

by eternaleponine



Series: Where There Is A Flame [4]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, First Meetings, Prequel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-05
Updated: 2016-12-05
Packaged: 2018-09-06 18:06:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8763478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eternaleponine/pseuds/eternaleponine
Summary: Lexa is used to being the new girl.  All she wants to to be left alone.
Costia is used to getting what she wants.  What she wants is to get to know the new girl.
Who will win?





	

One of the nice things about going to a school that was near a military base was that they tended to be pretty used to students arriving and departing abruptly at any time of the year, and they didn't make a fuss about it. Maybe with younger kids they did, since they would be with the same group of students all day, every day, so an introduction made sense, but by the time they got to high school, they just took the slip that Lexa had been given to prove that she was supposed to be there and waved her toward an empty seat. 

She always sat as close to the door as possible without actually sitting in the front row, because she hated having people sit behind her. Sometimes she could get the last row, but usually that was already taken, and she tried not to rock the boat. Rooms where the desks were in nontraditional arrangements were more problematic, and sometimes teachers had their own ideas about who should be sitting where, but she'd gotten good at rolling with whatever situation she found herself in. She didn't really have a choice.

She'd also gotten good at navigating the largely useless maps that most schools provided when she showed up at the front office on her first day, and was rarely late to class. But this school had been doing some remodeling recently, and the map she'd been given hadn't been updated. Which meant that the room where she was supposed to have art didn't even _exist_ as far as her sole navigational tool was concerned... and she would be _damned_ if she asked for help.

She made it before the bell, but only just barely, and by the time she got there all of the seats were taken except one. She slid into it and shoved her bag at her feet, hoping that no one would notice. 

But of course that was impossible when you were sitting at big tables that sat four, two each on opposing sides. There were two people staring directly at you no matter what you did. As it turned out, though, they weren't the problem. 

The girl next to her turned, her face splitting in a smile. "You must be the new girl," she said. "One of my friends mentioned you. I'm Costia."

She extended a hand, and it would have been rude not to shake it, so Lexa did, just long and firm enough that it would have passed the Captain's muster, then let go. "Lexa," she said. 

Costia cocked her head, still smiling, and it was the kind of smile that probably got her whatever she wanted most of the time. "Is that short for something?" she asked. 

"No."

"Lexa..." The girl – Costia – rolled her name over her tongue like she was tasting it and deciding whether she liked the flavor. "It's nice to meet you, Lexa."

Lexa knew that the right response was to say, 'You too,' or 'Likewise' or some other phrase that conveyed a similar sentiment. Hell, even a nod would probably do. Instead she just looked at her, wondering whether she would take a hint or just keep going. 

She didn't have to find out right away, though, because the teacher emerged from a supply room clutching a bundle of dowels in each hand. She smiled at them all, and if she noticed that there was someone she'd never seen before in the room, she didn't comment. "All right, everyone," she said. "Settle down. Now that we've finished up our first still life project, we're going to turn to portraits. Later in the year we'll do self-portraits, but to get us started, we're going to do something a little nontraditional, a little bit fun. I want everyone to come up and grab a few sheets of paper from the stack here, and a dowel. Also, one person per table grab a roll of tape."

They all moved to do so, and somehow it managed to not be complete chaos, although Lexa hung back until almost everyone else had gotten their things, because she hated being stuck in the middle of groups of people. When they were all back at their tables, the teacher – Lexa didn't remember the name from her schedule – continued. "I'm also going to need a few of you to volunteer as models."

Costia's hand immediately went up, along with a few others. "Great," the teacher said. "Thank you. What we're going to do is tape our paper to the floor. At the end of your dowel is a Sharpie. You're going to stand over the paper, and with your arm fully extended, you're going to use the Sharpie to draw the model. Just from the shoulders up, don't worry about the rest of the body. You'll have three minutes for each sketch."

She then released them to get their papers taped down and in position while she had one of the other volunteer models take a seat on a chair that was up on a tall table at the front of the room, so that they would all be able to see her clearly. 

"It sucks that you're starting late," Costia said, as if their conversation hadn't even been interrupted. "I guess it's not so bad, only missing the first few weeks, but..." She looked at her, considering, as she handed over the roll of tape. "I guess it probably sucks more switching for your senior year, though. Leaving behind all of your friends at your old school instead of getting to finish with them."

_What friends?_ , Lexa thought, but she didn't say it. "You get used to it," she said instead, not sure why she bothered to respond at all. 

"Just because you're used to it doesn't mean it doesn't suck," Costia said. 

Lexa frowned, because she was right. It was possible to get used to pretty much anything, but that didn't mean that it was good for you. She focused her attention on making sure that her paper was securely taped down so that it wouldn't move as she drew. 

"One more thing," the teacher said as they all uncapped their markers and got ready. "You are not allowed to look down while you're sketching. You can look down now to make sure that you're actually drawing on the paper – I recommend starting in the middle – but after that, you can't look until the three minutes is up."

"But how will you know if you're doing it right?" someone asked, in a tone that was very close to a whine.

"This is art, not math! There is no right or wrong." She beamed at them, and Lexa fought the urge to roll her eyes. "Is everyone ready?" Grumbles of assent. "Great. Time... starts... now!"

It was a struggle not to look down at the paper, to make sure that she wasn't actually drawing on the floor instead, or just drawing over the same spot on the page over and over again, but she forced herself to focus on the face of the girl up on the table, trying to recreate it as best she could even though she knew that when she finally got to look down, it would be a disaster. 

The thing was, she wasn't an artist. She was a photographer, but this school didn't have any photography classes, and when they'd done an audit of her transcript (and she couldn't imagine that that had been much fun, given the fact that she'd been to two different schools already for high school, neither of which were traditional American high schools) they'd determined that in order to meet _their_ graduation requirements, she needed one more arts credit. Actually, she needed _half_ an arts credit, but she'd decided that taking an art class was better than joining the choir, so she would end up with a full credit instead of half. 

The intro class had been full, so they'd allowed her to go up to the next level without it, just because they weren't about to hold her back for something silly. She was a lawyer's daughter, and a military lawyer at that. They knew better than to try. 

Finally the teacher called time, and she looked down... and almost laughed. Almost, but not quite. She saw Costia turn around as she was peeling the page off the floor and sticking down a new one, and she grinned and held hers up to show Lexa. "All things considered, yours is a masterpiece," she said. 

"Just say you were going for abstract," Lexa countered. 

"The eye is where the ear should be," Costia said. "And the mouth is on the forehead."

"It worked for Picasso," Lexa pointed out.

"Wasn't he losing his mind?"

Lexa shrugged. She also wasn't an art historian. "I don't think anyone did much better," she pointed out. The entire room was filled with groans and laughter. "Maybe you'll get better with practice."

The next model was one of the guys, and Lexa was a little more confident as she moved the dowel around, but the result was still a pretty epic fail. Her third attempt wasn't any better. Costia was called up as the fourth and final model, and Lexa found herself almost glaring at her as she struggled to control the lurching of the marker across the page. 

Costia came back to their table as she laid the page on top of the other three, sitting and trying to angle her body to keep her from seeing, but it was no use. Costia just nudged her shoulder against Lexa's, dislodging her so that she could see. "Is that me?" she asked.

"If you have to ask..." Lexa let the thought trail off, because really, what was there to say?

"No," Costia said. "I like it. I think that may actually be the most accurate depiction of my hair I've ever seen." She smiled at Lexa, a genuine smile that lit up her eyes. "Actually, I don't like it. I _love_ it. Can I have it when you're done?"

"For what?"

"No one's ever drawn a picture of me before," she said. 

"The entire _class_ just drew a picture of you," Lexa said. "Why don't you look at what other people did before deciding that mine is a masterpiece?"

"Because I'm not interested in what anyone else did," Costia said. "Yours is perfect."

What the hell was _with_ this girl? Lexa opened her mouth to respond, even though she had no idea what to say, and was glad when the teacher (she was really going to have to check her schedule for her name) started talking again. "Now I want you each to decide which of your drawings you like the best. Once you have, we'll take turns coming up here to use the opaque projector to put them on much bigger pieces of paper. You can then use any media that you want to turn them into portraits. Let your imagination run wild. Think outside the box. It's obvious that no one's portrait is going to be very accurate, so don't worry about that. Just make it your own."

Lexa looked down at her four drawings, but which was she was going to choose was already a foregone conclusion: Costia. Because there was no way that the girl would let her do anything else, and it was by far the best of the four. Sure, the lines were wobbly and jerky, but at least all of the features were in close to the right places, and in something in resembling the right proportions. And the hair was actually kind of fun – wild squiggles and corkscrews – and it gave her an idea. 

She was the first one up to the front of the room.

**Author's Note:**

> We've heard so much about Costia, I thought you might like a chance to actually meet her. 
> 
> Still taking prompts! You know the drill.


End file.
